160 THE WOKKING SURVEY. CHAP. IX. 



In preparing the Amended Stockton and Darlington 

 Act of 1823, at Stephenson's urgent request Mr. Pease 

 had a clause inserted, taking power to work the railway 

 by means of locomotive engines, and to employ them for 

 the haulage of passengers as well as of merchandise. 1 



The second Stockton and Darlington Act was obtained 

 in the session of 1823, not, however, without opposition, 

 the Duke of Cleveland and the road trustees still appear- 

 ing as the determined opponents of the bill. Never- 

 theless, the measure passed into law ; Stephenson was 

 appointed the company's engineer at a salary of 300/. 

 per annum ; and it was determined that the line should be 

 constructed and opened for traffic as soon as practicable. 



He at once proceeded with the working survey of the 

 improved line of the Stockton and Darlington Railway, 

 laying out every foot of the ground himself, accompanied 

 by his assistants. Railway surveying was as yet in its 

 infancy, and was very slow and deliberate work. It 

 afterwards became a separate branch of railway business, 

 and was left to a special staff of surveyors. Indeed on 

 no subsequent line did George Stephenson take the 

 sights through the spirit level with his own hands 

 and eyes as he did on this railway. He started very 

 early in the morning, and surveyed until dusk. John 

 Dixon, who assisted in the survey, mentions that he 

 remembers on one occasion, after a long day's work 

 near Aycliffe, when the light had completely failed 

 them, the party separated some to walk to Darling- 

 ton, four miles off, Stephenson himself to the Simpasture 

 farmhouse, where he had arranged to stay for the night ; 

 and his last stringent injunction was, that they must all 

 be on the ground to resume levelling as soon as there 

 was light enough for the purpose. "You must not," he 

 said, " set off from Darlington by daybreak, for then we 



1 The first clause in any railway j locomotive engines for the working of 

 I act, empowering the employment of | passenger traffic. 



